i 9 2 THE LAND OF THE LION 



elephants into a morass and securing the tusks of thirty of 

 them. It is only a very few years since such slaughter was 

 forbidden in English territory. Many an adventurous 

 or broken man turned to elephant hunting for a living, 

 and to-day many an explorer or sportsman, pushing his way 

 into the Abyssinian country, expects to pay a not incon- 

 siderable part of his heavy travelling expenses out of the 

 price he hopes to get for his ivory. Selous, as he tells us 

 in his well-known book, made his living from ivory, and 

 Newman was reputed to have laid by a large sum. These 

 and all other ivory hunters killed everything, big and small, 

 cow and bull, that carried tusks. If ivory averaged them 

 ten shillings a pound, and their animals averaged them 

 sixty pounds the pair of tusks, each elephant would mean 

 30 a large sum. But when the outlay that was neces- 

 sary is taken into account, the long distances food had to 

 be carried, the great journeys made, the preparations for 

 defence against uncertain or warlike tribes, but little profit 

 remained to most of them. In the Protectorate, under 

 present government regulations, no one can kill elephant 

 unless a 50 licence is taken out. This permits the holder 

 to shoot two. A third he can take, on his paying 15 extra. 

 It seems to me that these restrictions are not sufficient. 

 Many an idle man is now tempted, when word reaches 

 him at Nairobi or elsewhere, that elephant are in some 

 approachable locality, to take out a licence and enter on a 

 small speculation to the amount of 50. He seldom 

 covers his expenses, it is true, but surely no good is gained 

 by encouraging his onslaught on the fast disappearing game. 

 I should advocate the issue of a special permit costing 

 100 to kill two elephants in the Protectorate, and so check 

 the present very prevalent custom among settlers and 

 loafers, of trying to make a little money each year from their 

 slaughter. Many poor beasts go away wounded, and there 

 is no doubt at all that some undersized tusks are taken and 



